Anne Maria Pratt married Sir Henry Barkly* in Australia in 1860, three years after the death of his first wife, thus becoming the second Lady Barkly. At that time Sir Henry was Governor of Victoria, Australia. From 1863 to 1870 he was governor of Mauritius and during that time Anne corresponded with Sir J.D. Hooker* at Kew Gardens about the plants of the island. She accompanied Sir Henry to South Africa when he was appointed governor of the Cape of Good Hope in 1870, and left with him in 1877. During these years she and Sir Henry's daughter from his first marriage, Emily B. Barkly, made drawings of the plants that he collected. Copies of their drawings of Stapeliae were sent with Sir Henry's descriptions of the living plants to Kew Gardens. Anne also collected some plants herself, mainly pteridophyta, and a set of her ferns were arranged at the Albany Museum in 1890. In 1875 she published "A revised list of the ferns of South Africa ..." in the Cape Monthly Magazine (new series, Vol. 10, pp. 193-207), which was also reprinted as a pamphlet.

After Sir Henry's death in 1898 Anne received a small civil pension in 1900 and was still living in London in 1925. In 1927, at the age of 89, she was reported as still having an excellent memory and looking back on her happy years in South Africa.

List of sources:
Cape of Good Hope. Report of the committee of the Albany Museum, 1890.

Dictionary of South African biography (article on Henry Barkly), Vol. 2, 1972.

Gunn, M. & Codd, L.E. Botanical exploration of southern Africa. Cape Town: Balkema, 1981.

Kerkham, A.S. Southern African botanical literature, 1600-1988. Cape Town: South African Library, 1988.

Schoeman, K. Sir Henry and the Stapeliae. Quarterly Bulletin of the South African Library, 1998, Vol. 52, No. 4, pp. 132-133.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2023-03-09 10:34:55